Radio Waves

ARTICLES ABOUT RADIO WAVES BY DATE - PAGE 2

Gen Y should be renamed Gen Wireless. Many teens, twentysomethings and even thirtysomethings are rarely seen without their must-have accessory: the cell phone. More than 30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 34.5 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds lived in wireless-only homes as of the end of 2007, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While cell phones make our lives easier, some researchers and doctors question whether they also may harm us. When on, cell phones and other wireless devices emit radio frequency energy, a form of electromagnetic radiation.

The formula sounds a bit hokey today and indeed was fair game for parody toward the end of his reign as king of morning radio of Chicago. But when Wally Phillips explained it in his kindly purr, usually after a dozen callers had phoned in with solutions to a fellow listener's problem, all of Chicago seemed no bigger than Mayberry. "People helping people," he'd say. "That's what it's all about." Phillips, 82, died on Thursday in Naples, Fla., where he had a home. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years.

Saliva-based testing Simple, cheap diagnostic tests based on saliva analysis are nearing development, says a consortium of American researchers. The tests could be available by 2011 to screen for a variety of diseases, from cancers to Alzheimer's to cystic fibrosis. Scientists are busy mapping the "diagnostic alphabets" necessary, based on proteins in saliva. Transplanted discs work Though demonstrated in only five patients, spinal disc transplants from cadavers have proved a success in China.

If it's possible for radio waves to become part of the bloodstream, Harry Jacobs' veins coursed with music, news and talk. In four decades, Mr. Jacobs worked his way up from advertising sales to general manager of WMAQ-AM 670 and eventually co-owner of several stations in central Wisconsin, never losing his passion for the behind-the-scenes work that make broadcasts come alive. "He just believed in radio so much, that it's an incredible medium that wasn't going to change, even with television," said Nancy Jacobs, his wife of 51 years.

There's hope for peace in the Middle East yet. Apparently anything can happen. One of Chicago media's oldest, most bitter feuds came to a surprise halt Friday as estranged radio partners Steve Dahl and Garry Meier ended their acrimonious split of 13 years with an unplanned on-air reunion. To hear the once-hugely popular duo crack each other up during a broadcast of Dahl's five-hour WCKG-FM 105.9 afternoon show from Oak Street Beach, it was as if there had been no divorce, leaving fans--some of whom stayed even as rain began to fall, just to watch the two perform as they did for close to 15 years--undoubtedly hoping for more.

On the eve of the largest highway reconstruction project in Chicago history, officials said Thursday that accurate travel-time information will not be available on the Dan Ryan Expressway until temporary equipment is installed in late May at the earliest. Investment in the microwave radar system, which works like a motion detector by bouncing radio waves off passing vehicles to measure their speed, was originally scrapped in a cost-cutting move to save up to $500,000, said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Radio used to be so straightforward. A signal traveled over the airwaves, into your radio and out came a Cubs game or a Coldplay song. But now, alternatives that don't act like traditional radio are competing for your ears. You can hear a Cubs broadcast via satellite while driving in Boston or listen to hours of Coldplay from a customized Internet radio station. What's at stake for terrestrial broadcasters are the advertising dollars that have been the lifeblood of their business since commercial radio hit the airwaves in 1920.

By Clarence Page. Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board | February 23, 2003

Some liberal Chicago venture capitalists are trying to start a liberal-leaning radio network to offset the dominance of conservative talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and ex-convict G. Gordon Liddy. I wish them luck. I have long maintained that liberals can be just as obnoxious as conservatives, once they put their minds to it. Obnoxiousness seems to be the key to success in the popular culture, whether as a chatterbox on talk radio or a judge on "American Idol." That's why success with liberal talk on radio or TV is not going to be easy.

The overhead lights slowly dim, a pinspot illuminates the table at center and soft light washes over the painting on the back wall. A Broadway set at curtain time? Nope, the preset "dinner party" lighting in Rea Laccone's dining room. "The last thing I do before company arrives is yell, `Hit the lights!' " says the Los Angeles fashion executive. Call it the age of enlightenment. Thanks to everything from improving technology to Baby Boomers' aging eyes (spotlight, please)

Grote Reber, who erected the world's first radio telescope in his back yard in Wheaton and went on to champion a field of astronomy that led to the discovery of quasars, pulsars and black holes, died Friday, Dec. 20, at his longtime home in Tasmania, Australia. He was 90. Mr. Reber was a ham radio operator and an engineering major in the 1930s at what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he learned about a discovery that fascinated him. Karl Jansky of Bell Telephone Laboratories, after being asked to investigate interference on trans-Atlantic telephone wires, discovered that Earth was continuously bombarded by radio waves emitted from objects in space.